Employee Age as a Moderator of the Relationship Between Ambition and Work Role Affect

Abstract

Past research has demonstrated a negative relationship between ambition, or the desire to get ahead, and job satisfaction. In the present paper, age was hypothesized to moderate the relationship between ambition and job satisfaction such that the relationship between ambition and satisfaction is more negative for older employees than for younger employees. Three studies, with three criterion variables (promotion satisfaction, extrinsic job satisfaction, overall job satisfaction), were used to test the hypothesis. Results indicated support for the hypothesized interaction. The discussion focuses on the implications of the results for organizational and individual career management strategies.